


white/black

by thebitterbeast



Series: let's paint this town [6]
Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen, Prompt Fic, a little angst ahead, and Alaric Saltzman and Klaus Mikaelson, mentions of Elena Gilbert and Katherine Pierce, spoilers for at least the first half of season three
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-05
Updated: 2012-11-05
Packaged: 2017-11-18 01:00:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/555130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebitterbeast/pseuds/thebitterbeast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: 'colours'</p>
<p>White is for good. Black is for evil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	white/black

**Author's Note:**

> Colours can be used to represent emotions. The residents of Mystic Falls are very emotional people. These colours can define them. A series of drabbles based on a prompt about colours.

People think that Stefan's the good brother, the one who you can turn to in times of crisis. He's there when you need a friend, he's a shoulder to cry on. He saves people, helps them, and hates the idea of hurting innocents.

Stefan thinks it's all a lie. He's a monster. He craves blood, and it's practice and willpower that keeps him from tearing into people's necks and draining them dry. He's the boy who got duped by the girl he thought he was in love with, the boy who ruined his relationship with his brother for a girl who turned out to be nothing like what he thought. He's the boy who turned his older brother into a monster because he was too selfish to be alone.

When he meets Elena, she sees something in him that makes him think that maybe there is some goodness left in him, something that will redeem him. She makes him want to be better. She's everything he had thought Katherine was, everything that Katherine  **wasn't**.

And for some insane reason she loves him.

Despite the fact that he has sold his soul, the remnants of his humanity to Klaus in order to save his brother, despite the fact that he has essentially picked Damon over her, Elena still sees something worth saving in him.

The world sees Damon as the bad brother. He's the one who drains hikers dry for the fun of it, who compels girls to parade around in their underwear and uses them as personal blood bags. He kills and murders and plays mind games.

Stefan knows it's all a lie. There's more to his brother than that. His humanity is there, it's there in the way he waited 145 years to try and save Katherine. It's there in the way he becomes honest-to-god friends with Alaric. It's there in the friendship he builds with Elena. It's even there in his interactions with the rest of the motley crew, because although he says he doesn't like them and he threatens them, Stefan knows that Damon would kill anyone who dared to hurt them in a heartbeat.

So Stefan sells the soul he's not sure he has for the soul he knows his brother hides, because if anyone deserves to be happy, it's Damon. It's Stefan's fault he's in this mess in the first place, and Stefan will be the one to get him out.

Of course, Damon thinks Stefan's an idiot. Stefan can't keep saving him, and Damon's going to do everything to get his brother back.

Because Damon knows it doesn't matter who is the good brother or who is the bad brother, the world isn't black and white, they can be a bit of both. They  **are**  a bit of both. All that matters though, is that they are  _brothers_.

They are brothers, and family is all that matters in the end.

That is their humanity. That is their salvation.

**Author's Note:**

> I asked a friend to give me prompts because I hadn't written in awhile. This is in response to one of them.
> 
> [of course, this is before 3x15. this disregards all of that. because I have Salvatore feels sometimes.]


End file.
